Marvel vs. Capcom 2 demo brings jazz, leaves online play

The Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 demo is here for the PS3, and it's just as good as we …

The demo for the PlayStation Network version of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was released last night, sending the teeming masses of fighting game fans to their systems for the download. The bad news is that without online play or single-player the only way to test the game is to have another person in the room with you, but I refuse to believe we're so anti-social that playing with a friend is a big problem... right?

The game dishes up six characters, including Ryu, Strider Hiryu, Chun-Li, Wolverine, Iron Man, and Spiderman. Everything plays just like you remember from the Dreamcast version of the game, with great-looking backgrounds and a few options to try to take down the blocky look of the characters—so far we like the "Smooth" option the best. The high-definition backgrounds are slightly jarring behind the less-impressive sprites from the original game, however.

The music is still unbelievably cheesy, although the option to play with your own background music is going to take care of that problem nicely.

The widescreen presentation looks great, and Capcom explained how it was done on the official blog. "[W]ith most people playing on HD displays, we wanted to figure out how to implement widescreen support," Sven explained. "To do so, the camera field of view was widened (which we're able to do because of the 3D backgrounds effectively running off the 'edges' of the 4:3 scenario) and there are a few camera tricks that minimize any impact on the gameplay. Play area is unchanged, and this is not a zoom and crop like HD Remix was. To put it simply, the gameplay area will be in a 4:3 field, while the viewing area will be widescreen." If you want to keep the 4:3 ratio, the option is there as well.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation Network as a downloadable title this summer for $15. The demo may not have included your favorite character, and you might have wished for online play, but it proves that the game is real, that it still looks good, and the 56-fighter strong release is going to bring in a whole new generation of fans.